architechtural

Software:
Blender 2.79 | Cycles Renderer

There’s currently no built-in support for IES light sources in Blender & Cycles.
We already know that Blender 2.8 will have the feature built into it (which is great news!), and there’s an addon that provides the functionality, but I wasn’t satisfied with it’s workflow, not being integrated well into Cycles.
So I decided to develop a custom Cycles shader (node group) that will provide realistic IES like spotlights in a convenient customizable way.

The Shader I developed is called CG-Lion Spotlight Presets Pack 1.0 and is available for purchase on Blender Market.
It doesn’t load external IES files, but instead has a pre-configured library of 20 spotlights shapes, and also provides features that are not available in IES lighting like tweaking the spotlight beam focus, adding a chromatic dolor dispersion effect, and producing a correctly bright surface at the light source.

CGL_Spotlight_Presets_Pack_1.0_Previews.jpg

Software:
Maya 2018 | V-Ray 3.6

To set the VRaySun photometric light source diretion according to the location in the world, the date and the time:

Select the VRaySun parent node – ‘VRayGeoSun1Transform‘ and rotate it so its Z axis points to the architectural plan’s south.
Select the VRaySun node – ‘VRayGeoSun1‘ and in its attributes un-check Manual Position.
This will make the location / date / time parameters accessible.
Set the GMT zone of you architectural project’s location in the world, the Date and time.
* haven’t found how to set daylight saving time….

Realistic Spotlights for Blender & Cycles

Maya – Setting the V-Ray Sun direction according to location, date and time